The thrum of a hovering helicopter with a Minister on board was what hooked Shivangi, a wide-eyed 10-year-old from Bihar’s Muzzafarpur, to flying.

But then, as a regular moffusil girl born to a school teacher and a housewife, life moved on and she went on to graduate in mechanical engineering from the Sikkim-Manipal Institute of Technology.

While in college, a naval presentation made as part of a university entry scheme again stoked the latent desire in her to fly. She cleared the Service Selection Board (SSB) at Bhopal, but failed to get a call thanks to fewer vacancies.

Oxford Dictionaries has named “climate emergency” as its 2019 Word of the Year, choosing it from an all-environmental shortlist that also included “climate action,” “climate denial,” “eco-anxiety,” “extinction” and “flight shame.”

The Word of the Year citation is intended to highlight “a word or expression shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have a lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.” Recent winners have included “toxic,” “youthquake,” “post-truth” and “vape.”

Normally, the shortlist includes a variety of different words that illustrate new trends in language usage. While the choices are often politically inflected, Katherine Connor Martin, an editor at Oxford Dictionaries, said the unusual decision to focus on climate-related terms reflected a “demonstrable escalation” in the language around climate.

“When we were looking through the evidence, it was just clear that issues relating to the climate were running through all the different lexical items we were working with,” she said. “It reflects it was a real preoccupation of the English-speaking world in 2019.”

Veteran actor and Shabana Azmi's mother Shaukat Kaifi passed away here on Friday evening due to age-related illness at the age of 93.

Kaifi's son-in-law, veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, confirmed the news of the death of the theatre and film actor.

"She was 93 and was having one problem after another. She was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. For certain days she was in the ICU and then she was out of ICU. It was all age related," he said.

"Ultimately they brought her home. She wanted to come back to her own room where she stayed for a day or two and then passed away. Shabana is in Mumbai," Akhtar, who is in the US, told PTI.

The last rites will be held on Saturday noon.

Many Bollywood celebrities paid their last respects to the Ms Kaifi at her family residence. Pics from the day were shared by paparazzi Viral Bhayani. Manish Malhotra, Tabu, Shabana, Boney Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar, Satish Kaushik and others arrived at the venue. Check their pics below:

In an unexpected turn of events, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively in Raj Bhavan on Saturday morning.

The move has come as a total shock in the State as a meeting of all three parties on Friday night had unanimously agreed to make Shiv sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as the leader of the new government.

Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat released a short documentary film on Water Conservation named 'SHIKHAR SE PUKAR' in New Delhi yesterday.

The film has been made to promote 'Jalshakti Abhiyan' and is based on the Journey of an IAS Officer Ravindra Kumar, who climbed Everest this year to attract the attention of people from top of the Everest on the serious issue of Water Conservation and stopping Water Pollution.

Film also gives a glimpse on the significance of Himalaya as the main source of water needs of India by means of the river. It also picturizes the difficulties and challenges in climbing the highest peak of the world. 

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has stressed upon the importance of Agricultural allied businesses for the development of farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

He said this while inaugurating the 11th edition of Agro Vision-  2019, an Agricultural exhibition at Reshimbag Ground of Nagpur today.

Emphasizing the need for a permanent venue for training on best practices in agriculture & extension activities for the farmers in Vidarbha, the minister urged the professional and scientific institutes to take initiative in this regard.

Mr Gadkari informed about honey cubes on the lines of sugar cubes being developed by Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore.

He also visited the stalls mounted in the exhibition arena.
The 4-day event will comprise of national Agri exhibition workshop for farmers and seminars.

A Pavilion dedicated to Micro Small Medium Enterprise and display of livestock will be a special attraction in Agro Vision 2019.

In a significant accomplishment, Jammu and Kashmir has achieved the highest PMGSY road length in the country during the current year so far.

During the current fiscal, around 11,400 kilometres of different road projects against the total sanctioned length of 19,700 kilometres.

Consequently, against the sanctioned 2,214 habitations, 1,838 habitations have been provided connectivity as on date which include 101 habitations connected during current fiscal. Similarly, under Central Road Fund, 88 schemes have been completed which include 22 bridges and 66 roads.

As a mark of tribute to one of the most decorated soldiers of Indian Army Late Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, an Army Goodwill Park was dedicated at his native village Bhara in Doda today by GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh.

Many retired and serving GoCs were present on the occasion. The Army Goodwill Park has a statue of the martyred soldier, beside a Children park and open Gym for the villagers.

Speaking to AIR News, GoC-in-C, Northern Command said that Late Naib Subedar Chuni Lal was a brave soldier who had laid down his life for the motherland following the highest traditions of Indian Army.

Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar added two gold medals to India's tally at the ongoing ISSF World Cup Finals after clinching the top honours in their respective 10m Air Rifle event on Thursday.

Divyansh won gold in the men's category after he shot a score of 250.1 in the final round. He was followed by Peni Istvan of Hungary who bagged the silver medal with a score of 250.0. The bronze medal went to Jany Patrik who scored 228.4. Divyansh, 17, has already bagged the Olympic quota after he won a silver medal in the 10m men's air rifle at the World Cup in Beijing earlier this year.

The Film Bazaar, which is being organised by the National Film Development Corporation, was inaugurated by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on the sidelines of the golden jubilee edition of the International Film Festival of India.  

The Film Bazaar encourages creative and financial collaboration between the South Asian and International film communities. Over the years, films such as Lunch Box, Margarita With A Straw, Chauthi Koot, Qissa, Miss Lovely, Dum Lagake Haisha and Thithi have been through one or more programmes of the Bazaar.